


Frannie Visits the DA's Office

by Perpetual Motion (perpetfic)



Category: Law & Order: SVU
Genre: Frannie the dog - Freeform, Friendship, Gen, but maybe in yours, is the cutest, not-pre-romance in my head
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-26
Updated: 2016-04-26
Packaged: 2018-06-04 14:05:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,228
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6661531
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/perpetfic/pseuds/Perpetual%20Motion
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rollins comes by the DA's office to prep for trial and brings a friend.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Frannie Visits the DA's Office

**Author's Note:**

> Love to infiniteeight for encouragement and beta.

“Meemaw, I…Meemaw, if I could…”

Barba gave Rollins a questioning look as she walked into his office. She looked exasperated and rolled her eyes in response to Barba’s look. 

“ _Meemaw_ , I need a minute…I am _not_ sassing you. Give me a minute.” Rollins pulled her phone away from her ear and pressed the mute option on her screen. “Sorry,” she said to Barba. “I always call her on Sundays, and usually it’s quick, but she’s got a bug up her butt about my sister.”

“Do I even want to know the details?” Barba asked.

“No.” 

Rollins looked down, and Barba followed her gaze. A mutt of a dog was on a leash. Barba hadn’t noticed. “Is this the famed Frannie?” Barba asked. Frannie looked up at him and wagged her tail.

“This is,” Rollins replied. “Barba, Frannie. Frannie, say hi to Barba.”

Frannie gave a quiet bark and raised one paw. Barba leaned down and shook without thinking. “She’s well-trained.”

“She is. Can you watch her for ten minutes while I finish with this?” Rollins waved her phone.

“Do I need to do anything?”

“You can take off her leash. She’ll make herself at home.”

“Got it,” Barba said. Rollins gave him a thankful smile, handed him the end of the leash, and walked out of the office, closing the door behind her. Barba watched through the windows as she unmuted the phone and took a deep breath. Frannie nudged his knees, sniffing his trousers. 

Barba leaned down and unhooked the harness the leash was attached to. Frannie stepped out of the puddled harness and started sniffing around the whole office. “Good girl,” Barba said, and Frannie gave him a half-interested tail wag as she kept exploring.

Barba picked up the file he’d been reviewing before Rollins had shown up. She’d come in for final prep for court on Monday. The meeting wouldn’t take more than an hour, Barba figured. Rollins was always a quick prep; she had a memory for all the little details. 

Frannie gave a small bark, and Barba looked up. Frannie was looking at the window at Rollins, who was looking agitated. Frannie looked back at Barba with an expression he would almost call worried. “She’s okay,” he said. “She’ll be back in a minute.”

Frannie walked over and sniffed Barba’s shoes. She sat and looked up at him like she was waiting for something. Barba leaned down and petted her behind the ears. She kept looking at him. “What?” Barba asked. He sat in his desk chair, the file still in one hand. Frannie took a step forward and put her head on his knee. “I don’t know what you want,” Barba said. 

Frannie lifted her head, looked towards the door, then back at Barba. She whined quietly. “She’ll be back in a minute,” Barba said. Frannie put her head back on Barba’s knee. Barba put down the file and gave Frannie his full attention. He pet her behind the ears again, then down on her shoulders. She shifted, placing a paw on Barba’s leg. Barba pet the paw, and then he found himself with an entire dog in his lap. “Whoa!”

Frannie nosed at his ear, licked his neck, and tried to turn around in his lap, her claws pressing into his leg. “Down,” Barba tried. Frannie kept trying to turn. “Get down,” Barba said. Frannie stopped moving, looked over her shoulder at Barba, and wagged her tail, hitting him in the face. “Sit,” Barba said. He sighed in defeat when Frannie _did_ sit, but did not leave his lap.

Rollins walked back into the office, chuckled at the sight of Barba looking confused as Frannie made herself comfortable, and said, “Get down, little girl.” Frannie turned her head away from Rollins. “Frannie, _down_ ,” Rollins said, an authoritative edge in her voice. Frannie continued to look away. “Oh, for the love,” Rollins muttered. She walked over to Barba’s desk and tried to look Frannie in the eye, but Frannie kept looking away. 

“Is she ignoring you?” Barba asked. 

“Yeah. She’s too smart for her own good.”

Barba put his hands on Frannie’s ribcage and pushed. She did not move. “Why isn’t she moving? I figured she’d jump for you as soon as you came back.”

“She’s weird,” Rolins replied. “Or she’s worried because I was annoyed at my meemaw, or she’s punishing me for leaving her in here so I could take that call, or she’s decided she likes you and doesn’t want to move.”

Barba grinned and pet Frannie’s back. She wagged her tail, and it thumped against his leg. “I can say with certainty that this is the quickest anyone’s ever liked me.”

Rollins laughed. “Right? I felt the same when I got her.” She walked around Barba’s chair, put her hands on her hips, and gave Frannie a serious look. “Down. Now.” Frannie finally looked at Rollins, her tongue lolling out as she smiled. 

Barba shook his head and waved Rollins away. “It’s fine,” he said. “It’s kind of nice.”

“You sure? She’s being a brat.”

“Reminds me of growing up. We never had a dog; money was too tight, but the neighbors had a couple of mutts who’d bowl you over with affection like this.”

Rollins grinned as she sat in a chair across the desk. “Yeah, we had all mutts growing up. I think it’s literally impossible to be too poor to have a dog in Georgia.”

“Status symbol?”

“Oh, no, just sort of expected. Like marrying young and having too many babies or standing by your deadbeat family.” Rollins pulled a face. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to say anything.”

“It’s fine,” Barba replied. “You get your grandmother calmed down?”

“For now, but…what’s that you told us when we started here? Tell you everything up front so there’s no surprises?”

“That’s it,” Barba agreed. He scratched Frannie’s sides as he turned his chair to face Rollins. “What do I need to know?”

“Meemaw gave me Kim’s current cell number, and being that my sister is thick as a brick at some things, it’s likely it’s traceable and not just a burner.”

Barba considered the information. Frannie sat more firmly in his lap. “You write this number down?”

“No.”

“Were you recording the call with your grandmother?”

Rollins scoffed. “No.”

“Will your grandmother rat you out under subpoena?”

“Did you miss the part where she gave me my fugitive-from-murder-and-life-insurance-fraud sister’s phone number?”

“That’s a no, then.” Barba looked at Frannie. “What about her? Can we trust her to keep her mouth shut?”

“We can distract her with a Frisbee if it gets that far,” Rollins replied, and she was smiling.

“Then let’s say, until we need to admit this conversation happened, it never happened.”

“I can work with that.”

Barba waved the file he was still holding. Frannie looked at it, then tried to bite it. Barba pulled it out of her reach. “So, let’s do what we came here for, and you can get this monster off my lap when you go.”

“Sounds good,” Rollins replied. She smiled when Frannie rearranged herself to sit closer to Barba’s chest and Barba winced from her claws. 

“Detective Rollins,” Barba began, his voice smooth as could be even as Frannie stood for a moment and whacked him in the face with her tail, “walk me through the scene.”


End file.
